Fundamentalism in Australia’s university system

By Rodney Nillsen

The changes made to higher education by the Labor government in 1988 took many years to filter through the Australian university system. Those changes had two key features: colleges of advanced education became universities or were subsumed into a university; and a requirement that universities become like businesses and become financially more self-sustaining.

Accentuated by the shameful neglect of technical and further education, universities over time became, in the mind of policy-makers, vocational and training institutions. Education, higher learning, and research became increasingly subservient to commercial and training goals.

Read the full article